While the second bidding of the Cemetery and Lawn Maintenance Bids for the Town of Lebanon were due to be opened at 5:00 PM, the Selectmen went into Executive Session for a meeting with the Town Office Staff at 5 PM as 2 of the 3 bidders waited patiently in the Town Office lobby.
At 5:25 PM, the Town Office Employees emerged and the announcement was made that the bids would be opened.
Three bids were received for this work.
The first, from J & S Masonry of Brownfield, Maine was for $10,600. While the company gave no local references, and no representative was present for the opening, they did submit references of similar work from the town of Tamworth, NH and the proper insurance forms required for the bid.
The second bid opened was from an individual Lebanon resident, Nancy Brault. The bid was for $13,500. Ms. Brault was present at the time of the opening. There was some discussion as Ms. Brault did not include the insurance paperwork, but when questioned about this, she stated that she was a new entity and that if awarded the work, would turn the insurance paperwork into the town the following day.
The third bid was from Local Landscaping, a company out of Wells, Maine, who bid $15,000. There were several representatives of the company present who stated they lived in Lebanon, only a few miles from the Town Office. Their bid included the insurance paperwork requested in the bid package.
There was some discussion regarding the need of the Selectmen to discuss the bids, but it was mentioned that by Maine State Law, the mowing season, and thus the work on maintaining the town's 38 burial grounds, was mandated to begin on May 12th, the next day.
Selectman Paul Philbrick said that the Selectmen needed to make a decision on this right away and suggested that the Town go with the cheapest bid, the one from J & S Masonry, even though they were located at a considerable distance.
Selectman Chairman, Ben Thompson had some concerns as to the distance of Brownfield, Maine from Lebanon, but said that the bid was valid and all necessary paperwork was included. He asked if the insurance paperwork was required as part of the bid, and Selectman Philbrick read from the first page of the call for bids which stated that insurance paperwork did, indeed, need to be included.
Selectman Thompson said he really did not want to be back re-bidding this work out for a third time if J & S Masonry found the distance to be too great to perform the work properly.
One by one, each Selectman reviewed each of the bid packages.
Finally, Selectmen Thompson said that he felt that the J & S Masonry bid fit the needs, pricewise, of the Town and that their paperwork was all in place. He made a motion that the Town accept the bid of J & S Masonry of Brownfield, Maine and award the work, as proposed, to that company. The motion was seconded by Selectmen Heath. The Selectmen thanked the bidders for being present and for the time they took preparing the bids.
For those of you who have never heard of Brownfield, Maine, it sits in Oxford County, about an hour and 15 minutes due north of Lebanon.
